The Williams family experienced incredible joy last week. Brothers Inaki and Niko got to the World Cup in Qatar. However, despite the blood relationship, they will play for different teams. Sport tells one of the most unusual stories of the upcoming tournament.
Ignacs are sheathed at the start
Both brothers play for Athletic Bilbao. The team is known for strict rules for selecting players for the base. The club has only players with Basque origins. Inaki and Niko were lucky with this item in their biography.The brothers' parents were born in Liberia. In 1989, the country was torn apart from the inside by a civil war that became one of the bloodiest in African history. The father and mother of the players moved to Ghana. There they lived for several years and did not decide to go to Europe. The choice fell on Spain, where the couple settled.The brothers have Spanish citizenship, both played for the youth teams of the country. However, at the adult level, their international careers diverged. Iñaki joined Athletic in 2014 and quickly attracted the attention of the national team's coaching staff. Two years later, Vicente del Bosque included Williams in the extended list for the European Championship. The striker did not make it into the final application.
In the same 2016, Williams waited for a chance and came out in the second half of a friendly match against Brazil. Unfortunately, Iñaki has not spent a single minute for the Spaniards since then.
Niko just turned 20 years old. His history with the Spanish national team has only just begun. The current season was the striker's second for the main part of «Athletics».
At the same time, the year in La Liga was enough to attract the attention of Luis Enrique. In September, the striker was called up for the matches of the League of Nations. There he made his debut.
The Williams brothers will play in different groups. With luck, Spain could face Ghana in the quarter-finals. Such a scenario would be a real fairy tale. However, Iñaki's team is unlikely to even reach the playoffs.
The history of the Williams family is rare, but not unique. Siblings have already played in one major tournament for different teams.
The most recent example is Granit and Taulant Xhaka. The first stands for Switzerland, and the second for Albania. In 2016, they played against each other in the group stage match of the European Championship. The mother of the Xhaka brothers came to the stadium that day in an unusual T-shirt. One half of it was painted in the colors of Albania, the second — of Switzerland. It was they who became the first brothers to play against each other at the World Cup. It happened at the group stage in 2010. Then the German team with Jerome defeated the team of Ghana Kevin-Prince — 1: 0. Four years later, the brothers met for the second time. At the 2014 World Cup, the match ended with a score of 2:2.
Williams can repeat the unique achievement of Boateng and Xhaka. Then their parents will definitely have to come up with something before watching the meeting.